These stimuli require the nervous system to process the temporal pattern of incoming spikes or action potentials. The analysis of these stimuli requires characterization of how the nervous system processes time in the range of tens to hundreds of milliseconds. Temporal processing is required for simple sensory information, such as interval, duration, and signal discrimination, as well as complex forms of sensory processing, such as speech recognition or reading which requires both visual and auditory integration. However, most sensory stimuli are not purely spatial or temporal but, like speech and motion processing, require analysis of the spatial-temporal patterns of activity produced at the sensory layers. Unfortunately, at this point in history, not much is known or understood about temporal processing in the auditory and visual system. Though similar principles are applied and related to both …show more content…
Rather, the responses apparently are determined by specific time-varying components of the vocalization to which the cell is responsive. The temporal response patterns of cells in the auditory cortex are generally complex, showing "on" or "off" response patterns, sustained discharge, inhibition effects, and combinations of these effects. The discharge patterns are prone to change and may show habituation effects with repeated stimulation. In a periodic stimuli, a population of fibers discharge is precisely locked to the stimulus. Researchers suggested that such fibers may be important to the perception of periodicity pitch. There have been a number of other studies that have examined the ability of nerve fibers to follow temporal changes in the stimulus. Many studies have used either amplitude- or frequency-modulated stimuli to evaluate these temporal response properties. In general, throughout the auditory system the degree of response modulation decreases with increasing frequency of stimulus modulation. The ability of neurons to respond to a higher frequency-modulating stimulus generally decreases at higher levels of the auditory pathway and the neurons in the auditory cortex show poorer phase-locking at lower levels. Variability in latency to the first spike for a stimuli is similar in auditory cortex to that in the